Door handle assembly for a vehicle, including a door handle for actuating a door lock which can be moved by external power from a level rest position to an exposed operative position, and a lock cylinder placed adjacent to the door handle for locking and unlocking a door lock.
Such door handle assemblies are oftentimes used in vehicles for opening and closing of doors or hatches which are disposed in body openings. A level door handle is to be understood as relating to a door handle having a surface which in the rest position is flush with a surrounding body part. For allowing the door handle to be grasped by a user, the door handle must be moved, preferably by external power, from the rest position to an exposed operative position.
Such a door handle assembly is disclosed in generic DE 197 31 325 A1. The handle piece for opening the door is hereby arranged such that the outside of the handle piece is virtually flush in idle position with the outer contour of the door (level) and the handle piece can be switched for opening the door to an opening position in which the handle piece projects out in relation to the outer contour of the door. An adjuster unit is able to move the handle piece by external power into this opening position. Further arranged adjacent to the handle piece is a cylinder lock which is accessible from outside. The disclosed door handle assembly has the drawback that the cylinder lock cannot be attached in a concealed manner, so that the aesthetic benefits of a level handle piece is hereby partially lost again. This is particularly true in the case of a radio-based user identification that requires a cylinder lock only in exceptional cases. The same applies to the arrangement disclosed in EP 1 985 784 A1.
DE 298 04 105 U1 describes a handle for doors and hatches of motor vehicles, with a handle member which can be pivoted by a motor from a move-in position to a move-out position and has an undergrip zone which is situated in an inaccessible concealed disposition in the move-in position and is accessible only in the move-out position. A lock cylinder for a mechanical key is further provided in the undergrip zone, with the key being insertable only when the handle member is in move-out position. There is the drawback that the handle member can no longer be moved, when the motor drive fails and hence the lock cylinder is no longer reachable.